FAQ - Haiti earthquake
- Our congregation would like to collect clothes, food, or supplies. How can we respond with material resources?
- How can I give a financial gift?
- How much of my donation will be used in the relief effort?
- How are funds being used
- How can I volunteer?
- My company does match grant for gifts. Will my gift to PDA qualify for this program?
- How can I stay informed?
- Who are our partners in this response?
Clean water and sanitation are one of the first needs in the emergency relief phase. Here a partner is unrolling piping for a portable water system. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, ACT Alliance.
1. Our congregation would like to collect clothes, food or supplies. How can we respond with material resources?
Please prepare Gift of the Heart Hygiene Kits and Baby Kits, and avoid other material collections.
Donations of clothing and other materials are generally not appropriate for disaster response. Warehouse space and transportation costs must be focused on critically needed supplies. Review the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Material Aid Policy.
While PDA is discouraging sending material resources, we are encouraging individuals and congregations to assemble Gift of the Heart kits. Working in cooperation with our ecumenical partner Church World Service, shipments totaling more than 39,000 hygiene kits (to provide individuals with basic necessities) and 5,400 baby kits have been sent to Haiti. This has depleted the stock, and additional kits will be needed to be ready for immediate shipment when another disaster strikes or for additional shipments into Haiti. In addition, 420 school kits are being used by those who came to the United States with medically necessitated evacuees.
2. How can I give a financial gift?
In disaster situations the most pressing need is money. A designated account has been established to help with the immediate relief efforts: DR000064.
Give online – make a secure online gift with your credit card.
Give by phone – call PresbyTel toll-free at (800) 872-3283.
Give by check
Gifts by check may be given through your local Presbyterian congregation or mailed to:
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700
Please include the designated giving account number DR000064 on your check.
3. How much of my donation will be used in the relief effort?
A minimum of 95 percent of designated funds will be used to help those most in need. Up to five percent of your gift will be used to cover shared mission support costs associated with the processing and distribution of your gift. UPDATE: The maximum percentage allowed for the shared mission support cost has been reached for 2010. This means that 100% of gifts to the Haiti response account DR000064 from June through December 2010 will go for disaster recovery and will not be assessed the shared fee.
4. How are funds being used?
One Great Hour of Sharing and general designated funds continue to help with basic humanitarian relief in providing temporary shelter for families and schools, food and health assistance, psychosocial support, water and sanitation engineers, and equipment to construct water purification systems. Resources for building latrines are also being provided, as the sanitation situation is critical. PDA will be supporting communities in the long struggle to rebuild from this disaster — the worst earthquake to strike Haiti in 200 years.
PDA will continue to work with ecumenical and local partners on the following initiatives:
- Repairing/building permanent housing – Because most Haitians were tenants before the earthquake, few have their own place to return home. As possible, PDA will support: first, an effort to repair damaged houses that can be made habitable and safe with minor work so families can safely return home, thus avoiding the stress of relocation/displacement; second, the expansion of host homes, enabling them to become more permanently appropriate for additional family members.
- Supporting agricultural sustainability – working with the Presbyterian Hunger Program and the Joining Hands Against Hunger initiatives, PDA is helping the co-ops provide their members with agricultural necessities like seeds, tools, and fertilizers and also helping provide appropriate training and technical assistance.
- Continuing support for displaced people camps – two camps near the Dominican Republic border, with basic humanitarian assistance; also assistance with leadership formation, community organizing and temporary shelter solutions.
- Addressing the needs of vulnerable children and families
School – the goal is to have 30 target schools fully operational with access to clean drinking water, sanitation facilities and a school feeding program within the next six months; then activities will shift towards permanent reconstruction.
Psychosocial support – the emotional and psychosocial support activities for children include Capoeira, an art of acrobatic play which encourages the control of emotions. Educational, vocational, and life skills training and emotional support services are also being offered for children, teenage mothers and former gang members. A pilot “Family Reintegration Project” aims to reunite restavek children with their families in rural areas (these children had been sent to work as domestic servants in Port-au-Prince.)
- Empowering people with disabilities - people with disabilities are some of the most at-risk members of the community, facing greater challenges in adapting to new living conditions (such as tent cities) and having difficulty accessing relief assistance. PDA is working cooperatively to support 1,200 people with disabilities and their families with referrals to available services and emotional and trauma recovery counseling.
- Providing medical support - PDA is working with Medical Benevolent Foundation (MBF) to help our longtime mission partner Hospital St. Croix and the related Nursing School with rebuilding and repair of their facilities to enable continuing relief and development work.
5. How can I volunteer?
Volunteers and work teams
Volunteer opportunities in disaster settings are extremely rare and are usually limited to people with prior disaster experience and technical skills (such as health, engineering, etc). If it is determined that the situation in Haiti warrants and can sustain volunteers we will notify interested volunteers who have registered their contact information. Please complete the online interest registration form to indicate your interest, skills and experience.
French or Creole fluent trauma counselors
PDA and its partners are seeking qualified persons interested in offering emotional care/staff care for Haitian national staff engaged in development and disaster relief activities in Haiti who have been exposed to traumatic stress and an overwhelming emotional environment. We are compiling a database of such qualified parties for possible assignment in Haiti to work with PDA’s local and international partners. Learn more about the qualifications and apply online.
Medical volunteers
We would normally refer this type of volunteer to the Medical Benevolence Foundation. Medical services volunteer teams are not being requested at this time. Board member Shelley Ulrich included in a May communication to prospective mission volunteers,
“… Currently, the health care needs of the community are being met with local Haitians and our church partners have asked MBF not to send U.S. health care workers. Additionally, only long term mission workers with general contracting skills and a working knowledge of the Creole language are being requested at this time. As construction and rehabilitation progresses, in-patient services will return and MBF anticipates an increased need for short-term mission workers.” Read new information and updates during this recovery period.
USAID also has an online interest registration form for medical and non-medical volunteer service.
For more information on international disaster volunteers visit the Center for International Disaster Information’s Web site.
6. My company does match grant for gifts. Will my gift to PDA qualify for this program?
Yes, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, is a federally recognized, tax exempt organization pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its tax ID number is 13-3462549. Receipts will be issued for charitable contributions made to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, for disaster-related or other mission work.
7. How can I stay informed?
Please continue to check the PDA Web site for current and updated information. Sign up to receive the PDA-RIN information in your email inbox.
8. Who are our partners in this response?
PDA is working ecumenically in the Haiti response in cooperation with our long-term mission partner the Episcopal Church and is also working cooperatively as a member of ACT (Action by Churches Together) Alliance and Church World Service (CWS). Our support of ACT and CWS enabled a multiplied response to provide for immediate needs of food, shelter, water, and the disbursement of Gift of the Heart kits for tens of thousands of individuals, families, and communities.
Some of the rural areas of Haiti not directly impacted by the earthquake have been hosting evacuees from Port-au-Prince and other devastated sites. Mouvman Peyizan Papaye (MPP) and FONDAMA are Presbyterian Hunger Program partners helping with food security — through seeds to re-initiate the production of food and tasks linked to the improvement of the local environment (reforestation, dissemination of fruit trees and energetic species) to help stabilize the natural resource base that now must support thousands more people. Work with MPP has been in cooperation with PC(USA) Mission Coworker Mark Hare. Visit Mark Hare’s web page.
The PC(USA) International Health Ministries Office has an ongoing relationship with the Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF). Having a rich history with Hôpital Ste. Croix (HSC) and the Nursing School in Leogane, MBF responded immediately following the January earthquake. Personnel arrived in Leogane and worked with partners to coordinate several shipments of medical supplies and medicines and to transform the nursing school into a temporary hospital. One Great Hour of Sharing and designated funds supported health care for injured patients, provided a generator for the hospital, and are helping to make necessary repairs to the hospital’s security wall. The Haitian Government is still requiring that all health services be provided at no cost to patients.